


This Adventure is Ours

by SophieScribbler



Category: Uncharted (Video Games)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-12 11:55:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 22,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29010147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SophieScribbler/pseuds/SophieScribbler
Summary: Rosie Anderson's only dream was to become a recognized historian. While working in a Brazilian library to finish her thesis, her whole life changes when she tries to stop a mysterious, handsome stranger from stealing a book. Join Rose and Sam Drake as they fight their way through the Mercenaries of Huxley Warden to find The lost city of Z!
Relationships: Samuel Drake/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1: Rose Anderson

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Thank you for checking in! :) This story is going to be mostly about my oc Rose Anderson and Samuel Drake from the Uncharted universe. I'll be trying to write in the style of the first two games because I loved the supernatural parts in them :)  
> I own none of the characters from the Uncharted universe, all belongs to the wonderful Naughty Dog!  
> I only own my oc, Rose Anderson and the story itself.  
> Sorry if the English is sometimes strange, it is may second language so that's why the accidental grammar mistakes.  
> I hope you'll enjoy reading this story as much as I enjoy writing it (I love Sam so much).  
> Thank you so much again for reading! :)
> 
> SophieScribbler

When Rose was only a small child, she loved listening to her mother's bedtime stories about famous historical figures and legends of long forgotten lost cities and civilizations.

She always fell asleep listening to how Ehnaton changed the religion of the Ancient Egypt or how the chiming bells and singing from Kitezh could be heard from under the waters of Lake Svetloyar on very silent days.

But her favorite stories were always the ones about the Lost city of Z. She kept asking her mother to tell those stories again and again until she herself knew them word by word.

"Aren't you bored of these stories sweetheart?" Martha, her mother, asked sometimes when her daughter begged her to tell them again. " You already know them by heart."

But Rose never really got tired of listening to her mother telling about the legend of the-never-found huge city in the heart of the Amazonas Basin.

She always saw herself by the side of the famous English adventurer and archeologist, Percy Harrison Fawcett as they cut the huge, deep green leaves of the jungle, going deeper and deeper into the humid and dangerous rainforest. Being all dirty, completely sweaty and tired but still brave and determined at the heart.

Fighting off huge tigers and venomous snakes was always part of her imaginations alongside the pictures of herself wielding swords and shooting at enemies from behind the cover of huge mossy trees even though in real life she was afraid of sleeping in the dark and thunderstorms and never dared to speak to strangers unless her mother was there with her.

She grew up listening to these stories as an only child to Martha, whose husband left them when Rose was only four years old. Even though it wasn't forbidden for him to come and visit his daughter, he stopped coming after some time.

Rosie, as her mother always called her, didn't understand why he never came again and after a while she just accepted it. She explained it with the fact that she might not be important, that's all.

Her favorite hobby soon became burying herself in books and concentrated on studying hard because she wanted to achieve something. Something that would make her important and acknowledged among people. She wanted to become a famous historian with important discoveries and papers published in big magazines.

That and her mother's stories were the factors that helped her made up her mind about what to choose as a profession. So, she studied so hard, finishing high school with a full A school report.

She got accepted to an excellent university and things were going just fine in the first two years. Rose was still an excellent student and her professors knew her name and really liked her enthusiasm. But then, when Rose was only 21 years old, her mother got very sick.

She tried to stay strong as she watched her mother slowly dissolving into nothing. Seeing Martha loose more and more weight every day, and seeing how much hair was abandoning her body every time she brushed it out, slowly broke her inside, but she couldn't let her mother see it.

So, she always put up a smile before entering her hospital room and strictly only cried at night when she was completely by herself.

On the very last day, when Rose went to visit her mother after her classes, Martha weakly grabbed her hand and looked her in the eyes. Rose saw how little light was left in her mother's gaze and felt her stomach twist in fear.

"Rosie, my sweetheart." Martha started. "Listen to me." Her voice was weak and hoarse. "I want you to promise me that you won't give up on your goals even when I'm gone.."

"Mom, please..." She started but her mother stopped her with a weak and barely noticeable motion of her hand.

"You have to continue with your life, please promise me this! You can't give up on your dreams and everything you have ever worked for so hard before. You're such a strong woman..." Rose saw the pain in the eyes of Martha and saw how important it was to her.

Even though she felt that she wouldn't have the strength to keep it, she promised she'd finish her studies. This was the very last day they spoke. Martha died that night and left Rose on her own.

The only reason she coped with her grief and continued with school was because she promised it. She still got the maximum out of her grades but the light of her eyes was gone.

She thought Percy Harrison Fawcett and his discoveries of the City of Z would make a dear topic for her master's thesis but it only made things harder.

Sometimes when she tried to read through it, all she could think of was how her mother would've loved it and how much she could help her write this.

On these occasions Rose simply put her papers back to the bottom of a drawer and didn't touch them for days. The days then became weeks and the weeks slowly became months. She was now 27 years old. Her thesis grew with her and became 300 pages long already - though still far from being finished.

To help herself stay inspired on writing Rose moved to Rio de Janeiro in South America, and started working at the National Library of Brazil, so that she could earn money and support herself but at the same time still be able to easily get the books she needed.

It was a boring job but had its perks. All she had to do was keeping an eye out on the visitors, help them find the books they needed and take the ones left on the tables back to their places. And this way she even had the chance to study the very own notes of Percy Harrison Fawcett! Even if the only times she could touch them were way after the closing hours of the library, when all of her colleagues already went home.

Every day was the same for Rose - she woke up, got ready for work and spent her whole day at the library. After work she either ate at some small local restaurant or went home and ordered a takeout.

She lived alone and even though her coworkers tried to invite her out sometimes she never said yes. She didn't want to invest in friendships that would eventually come to an end someday. Also Rose never thought of the possibility of someone liking her for herself and it was easier like this.

She didn't even find herself too attractive either. She often looked in the mirror and tried to look flirty or smirky but she always stopped it quickly as she thought it looked ridiculous on her.

Rose was a 166cm tall woman with pale skin which got all freckled up when the sun shone on it. Her hair was mildly curly and mousy color, here and there blonder, being curlier at some parts and straighter on the others, reaching all the way down to her back. She hated how it was always in her eyes and face so she usually just wore it in either a half bun or a half updo just to get it out of the way.

Her body was nothing special either. She was thin but not fit at all, as she was sitting above books all her life.

Overall, Rose didn't think of herself as a woman who would catch the attention of any men. The only thing she liked about herself was her light blue eyes, that glowed out of her face a bit but that was all.

She honestly believed that she was destined to be alone for the rest of her life and her only companies would be her loved books on history. And maybe some cats.

Of course, she sometimes imagined that one day a handsome stranger would walk into her life and abduct her from her routine, saving her from the nothing that surrounded her but then she quickly just shooed these thoughts away as she thought it was silly and even a bit childish.

Still, on a completely normal day, that started just like every other before, He literally walked in to the library and changed everything forever...


	2. Chapter 2: Samuel Drake

Rose was sitting behind her desk at the huge and stunning National Library of Brazil. The weather was hot and humid outside, and even warmer than usual.

The air felt thick - it was hard to even just breath normally in the extreme heat wave that was attacking the people of Brazil. This made Rose so sleepy and blunt, she had to fight her own eyelids to stay open.

It seemed that this day was going to be just as eventless as every other so far and today she was thankful for this as even the simple task of staying awake was a challenge for her.

She herself was reading a book - about the Amazonas Basin - under her desk, just like the few other people who decided to come to the library instead of visiting the beach or chilling in an air conditioned caffe.

Today she was assigned for the entrance floor where her only job was to help those, who dropped in, find the readings they needed.

She was just about to thank god for the exceptionally few visitors they had that day when a man entered the building, passing closely by her, dragging a strong scent of cigarettes and aftershave mixed well together. He murmured a small " _boa tarde_ " as he walked by, in a strong English accent but this wasn't the only thing that caught Rose's attention immediately.

The man clearly was suspicious. He was tall and in his early forties with sharp eyes that told nothing good about him at that moment. He even had a tattoo on his neck that reminded Rose of prison tattoos.

For a quick first glimpse, they seemed to be flying birds. He was wearing a light denim button up shirt with a white undershirt and on his side a fairly big bag was dangling which was empty at that moment.

He was gazing around him quickly checking out who looked in his direction as he targeted the stairs that led to the next floors.

The sight of this man that clearly had something fishy about him immediately dragged Rose out of her sleepwalking state. She got excited over the fact that she might have to act up against a book thief for the first time since she'd been working there.

At first Rose tried to shoo the thoughts that this man was up to no good away. But she couldn't help but looking at the direction where he disappeared, excepting him to return all stocked up with books that belonged to the library.

At some point she even stood up from her place and almost went after him to check what's he might be doing but she ordered herself to sit back in the end.

She made an agreement with herself that she would keep an eye out on him and his suspiciously empty bag when returning but until then she remained calm on her seat.

She went back to reading her book but kept checking once in a while whether or not he was coming.

After about half an hour or so she almost forgot about him when the man was finally - half walking, half jogging - coming down the stairs. He kept looking behind him and hurried up his steps as he was closing to the exit.

He didn't even notice Rose who was straight up staring at him, looking for confirmation about her suspicions. _Aha_! She thought to herself. The bag that was empty when he entered now clearly had weight in it! It was perfectly visible that at least one if not more small books were jolting inside the fabric as he walked in a fairly quick pace.

" _Okay. Now what_?" She asked herself in slight panic as she realized that she was right. If she won't act quickly, he'll leave the library. After all, it was partly her job to stop people from stealing books, _right_?

Just when the man passed her desk and opened the door to the hallway she jumped out from behind her desk and hurried after the man slightly tipping over her own leg.

She didn't want to seem too excited about her little action so she took a deep breath and weakly cleared her throat.

" _Great!_ " She thought to herself. " _That sounded completely pathetic._ " So, she tried to make up her mistake with addressing the man with confidence but her simple "Excuse me, sir?" now sounded way too deep and aggressive. Like an angry boar or something. " _Oh, come on_!" She said inside her head but she got what she wanted as the man stopped and slowly turned around his heels.

Just like a child who got caught while stealing cookies from a forbidden jar.

He quickly checked Rose out from head to toes and as he saw who was addressing him, his face put up a flirty smirk and asked: "Yes, milady?"

He raised one of his brows higher than the other while he asked and for some reason it annoyed Rose so much, she forgot about how anxious she had been before, and immediately got to the point, without any hesitation or thinking about tones of her voice.

"I'm really sorry to inform you, but books cannot be brought out of the building." She said with a mincing smile on her face but a sharp tone in her voice. The man acted like he was surprised.

"Milady," he started, looking completely innocent. " I don't have any books with me." And just to prove himself right he raised his hands up in the air, showing that they were nothing but empty.

"I saw you enter here with an empty bag." Rose replied with a slight annoyance in her tone as she realized the man was now trying to make her look stupid. "But as far as I can tell, your bag is far from empty now."

She thought she got the winning cards but to her surprise the man didn't look like someone who just got caught. On the contrary, his smile got even wider and quirkier as he replied: "Milady, were you checking me out? If this is gonna be a harassment I'd like you to know that I am perfectly aware of my rights..."

"Please, don't make me call the police. Stealing from the library is considered a crime but if you give the books back to me now, we'll just simply forget our little affair and you're free to go, I promise." Replied Rose. She even held out her palm while talking, expecting the man to grab the books from his bag and hand them over immediately.

But it seemed that he just didn't want to give himself in. As he stepped one step back, towards the direction of the entrance, he replied: "Sorry but - even if I had the books which I obviously don't - I couldn't give them back to you. But since I don't have any books with me, of course, I'm just gonna leave now."

As he was talking, he kept slowly backing to the entrance door. " It was a pleasure, milady" He said and turned around to reach the door knob.

"Oh no you don't" Muttered Rose under her breath and reached after the man just when he opened the door. She almost got his hand when she realized something strange was going on.

The man didn't step out and left immediately. Instead he balked at the doorstep and a small "oh shit!" Left his lips.

He shut the door back and grabbed Rose by the arms pushing her down to ground, out of the way of the wooden doors.

When she was about to ask what the hell was wrong with him, she heard gunshots and saw how the bullets punctuated the doors just to be stopped by the solid walls of the building.

"What the hell?!" She yelled as the man was dragging her by the arms back inside the library, still keeping both of them close to the ground.

"Sorry sweetheart, I'm afraid we can't continue our argument about me not stealing any book" replied the man somehow still managing to

keep the flirty smirk on his face as if what was happening now was just an everyday phenomenon for him.

He dragged Rose behind the safety of a desk and jumped to his feet, completely ready to leave her there and save himself. Rose - being in a mild state of shock - stood up from her hiding space, with open mouth looking around how the bullets were hurting her dear books.

She just stood there observing the damage and the man running for the stairs when a bullet flew just by her left ear making her let out a huge scream.

The man was already in the middle of the first set of stairs when he heard the scream and looked back just to find Rose standing straight in the middle of the wild shower of gunshots.

"Oh, come on" he pressed the worlds between his teeth as he turned back to push the girl out of danger. Just as they fell to the cold, stone floor the entrance door of the library blew open, making small bits of wood and glass rain in the building.

"It'd be wiser to stop running, Drake!" A man yelled from the doorway. "The farther you run the more damage you'll cause to this place."

"Yeah like I'm the one blowing up National buildings without question" he murmured the reply to himself as he was checking out their escape chances.

"Okay, listen" he turned to Rose. "You're gonna have to run with me okay? Just do exactly as I do" he told her and didn't even wait for her reply when he grabbed her hand firmly and started pulling her, in the cover of the desks, to the nearest staircase.

  
Rose didn't even think just followed the man trying not to fall over anything.

Through the hall, up to the first floor on the stairs. As they were running, bullets kept flying by their head making horrible holes on the beautiful walls of the library.

  
When they reached the second floor of the building the man run to a window and broke it with his elbow, then pushed Rose to the newly emptied window frame, urging her to climb out.

  
"See the roof of that building next to this?" He pointed to a slate roof that was 2 if not 3 meters away from them and about 1,5 meters down. "You'll have to jump there, it's not a big deal, just don't think about it, okay?" He talked like jumping Olympian heights was an everyday thing.

" _What_?! No! I can't..." started Rose but as the gunshots were coming from nearer and nearer the man pushed her so hard, she didn't really have any other choice.

"Well, you have to." He replied urging her to jump and when she finally climbed out the window, she felt such a strong push on her back that she had no other option but jumping without hesitation.

For a brief second time slowed down around her. She felt the hot air sliding on her face, her hair being caught up in the wind and her stomach journeying up from her belly to her throat. She fell to the roof so hard, all of the air got pushed out of her lungs.

She didn't even have the chance to think about how hard she hit her knees or her elbows because the air missing from her body dominated over every other unpleasant feeling she had at that moment.

A huge thud beside her indicated that the man also jumped out the window and just when she finally was able to breath, she felt him dragging her by the arm again.

"We have to make another jump!" He yelled, running to the edge of the building and before Rose got the chance to even understand what she was just told, they both jumped off the building.

She excepted another painful landing and new airless seconds but to her surprise all she could feel was the strong smell. They landed in a dumpster beside the building.

"Come on!" Said the man as he helped her climb out of the rubbish. "Jump up!" Urged Rose as he himself jumped on a motorcycle leaving enough space behind him for the girl to sit on.

As he started the engine up, they heard new wave of gunshots again but the motorcycle was so fast and the man was too good of a driver himself, leaving all the danger behind themselves in seconds.

As Rose held on to the torso of the man with all her might he heard the man introduce himself:

"I'm Sam Drake by the way."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! :) Thank you for reading so far! :) Stay tuned for more if you liked this story! Ps.: I love reading opinions very much so if you feel like it, leave a comment below! :)


	3. Chapter 3: From now on

Rose was clenching onto Sam's shirt so hard the knuckles on her fingers went completely white as the blood left her fingers. He was driving the motorcycle so fast, maneuvering through thin gaps of cars parking, driving in traffic and he also turned down on small alleys so quickly and sudden that she was constantly afraid of falling from behind him.

He was silent for the next twenty minutes or so, while they were getting farther and farther from the library. Rose didn't know what to even think, just tried to replay all that happened before, hoping she could understand it.

Mercenaries attacked this man, named Samuel Drake with guns and everything and she somehow got all tangled up in the events. He saved her life but now she wasn't sure if she could ever be able to go back to the library or even just home. She didn't know whether she was safe or did she just become a target herself accidentally as well?

Did the mercenaries see them together? Would they think that they are in the same party?

She was thinking about these possibilities and ways of how she could get herself out of this situation when Sam finally started to slow down his motorcycle. Rose felt the air ease around her and her curly locks that had been flying behind her in the air were now casually falling back to her back.

As she looked around, she recognized the place immediately - it was the Flamengo Park by the seaside. Since it was already late afternoon the area most close to the seashore was fully crowded. People were playing volleyball, sunbathing, walking on the smooth sand and bathing in the warm seawater.

Perfect place if someone wanted to blend in with the crowd. But Sam didn't drive directly to the middle of the fullest area. He choose a more discreet part, where only a very few people were either jogging or bathing in the sun, earphones plugged in their ears.

He turned off the engine and waited for Rose to get off of behind him first, only then he kicked down the stay-rod and got off the vehicle himself as well.

As Rose let go of the man's shirt, she felt how hard she'd been clutching. Her fingers went completely numb and achy. She started massaging them, trying to get her thoughts together, while Sam reached to the pocket of his shirt and got out a pack of cigarettes.

"I'm sorry I got you into this" He said, holding a cigarette between his lips, tapping the back pockets of his jeans looking for his lighter. "But now that I think back, I wasn't the one who kept insisting on harassing me..." A childish sparkle twinkled in his eyes as he said that, but Rose wasn't in a funny mood at that very moment. After all it was her life that got turned all upside down.

"I wouldn't be here if you hadn't stolen in the first place!" she snapped. "Who were those people and why did they try to kill you? And what'll I do now?" she asked, stopping the nervous massaging of her hands just to hug herself in slight panic.

Sam looked at her with a small concern on his face. It was clearly visible that he felt sorry for Rose. He took a long drag of his cigarette that he just lightened and as he blew the smoke out, he replied: "They were the mercenaries of a man named Huxley Warden" he said. "He is... someone who's looking for the same thing as me. And he doesn't like competition quite much." He took another drag of his cigarette and looked at Rose waiting for her next questions.

Rose digested the answer. Huxley Warden. Never heard of him before but he must be insane if he wants to murder people just because " _he doesn't like competition_ ". She bit her lips looking at Sam. "Do you... Do you think he saw me with you? And now thinks I work with you?" she asked. "Do you think I can go home and continue with my... " she wanted to say life, but then she stopped. She hadn't quite much been living a life before... She only vegetated, doing chores like some robot...

"Uh, yeah... About that" Sam started. His voiced promised nothing good. " Do you have any other places to go? Like out of Brazil? I'd suggest you look up other places for a while." He said, throwing his cigarette butt in the sand and stepping on it with one of his feet.

"Hah!" Rose laughed, maybe a bit too hysterically for even her own likings. "I've got like three mansions around the globe! All in different countries you know. My options are endless!" She said, maximum amount of sarcasm in her voice.

So, this meant she was screwed. Of course, she couldn't leave the country, she barely could support herself, living from month to month. Buying plane tickets and looking for new apartments wasn't really an option in her case. "Dammit!" She kicked the sand and leaned back on Sam's bike. "What the hell are you even looking for that is this important?" As she looked at his face, she saw a half smile

appear in the corner of his mouth as he himself leaned on the motorcycle as well.

Rose noticed his eyes were hazel brown, a good amount of green mixed with a lot of chocolate. Now that she could have a better look at them, she noticed how they were not just sharp, but also sad. Like something was taken from him, or having a hard life or something that hurt him under the coat of the flirty smiles and lame jokes.

"Have you ever heard of Percy Harrison Fawcett? And the legend of the Lost city of Z?" he asked as he gazed in the distance. "How he went to search for a great civilization but disappeared in the jungles of the Amazonas Basin?"

Rose's jaw dropped as her eyes widened twice their usual size. This can't be true. Of all the people on this Earth. Of all the people in this country alone, she really met someone who does not just know about the legend, but actually was looking for the very city of Z itself?

"Are you kidding me?" she asked in disbelief. "City of Z is literally my life. Ever since I was a kid I've been dreaming about finding it one day, proving it wasn't just a legend." she said running her fingers through her hair in disbelief. "I mean, of course I now know it's nothing but a legend, but still. I'm writing my thesis about this." she was looking at Sam in disbelief and she saw the same surprise on the man's face as well. Was he really looking for it? Wait, was he?

"But it is all just a legend... Fawcett simply got lost and died in the jungle." She said looking up at Sam, but he was already shaking his head before Rose finished her sentence.

"That is what they say after they didn't find any evidence that would proof otherwise." he said while reaching for his bag that was still on his side. "But here are these notes that were in the back of one of his notebooks, back in England." He reached in his bag and got out a small brown, leather-bound journal. It was packed with all kinds of papers, pictures and notes. He opened it around the middle, where the bookmark string was left and handed it over to Rose.

As she got it in her hands, Sam pointed on a drawing, that was nothing else but a piece of a map. "This right here" he said, excitement in his voice "Is a part of a map I belive is showing the location of Z itself! Or at least a map to where the next clue is... " His eyes were sparkling as he talked. His excitement was visible and he couldn't help but push his chest out in his pride. As he looked at Rose, waiting for her reaction, he reached for his pack of cigarettes again.

She looked at the old, yellow and fragile paper closer and she did saw what Sam was talking about. The picture that was drawn by hand wasn't a full, just a corner of a whole bigger image. It really looked like a map, there were even some things written on some parts, but the letters couldn't make up an existing word. At least not in the actual order they were written.

"From where exactly did you get this?" she asked looking up at the man beside her. "If it was just lying in one of Fawcett's diary than why hadn't anyone find it before you?"

"Well, I know it's gonna sound barbaric, but it wasn't just simply between the pages of his journal. Actually, I had to rip open the binding of it, that's where this was hidden, behind the leather cover."

"You did what?!" Rose gasped in horror, looking at Sam as if he was some kind of a monster.

"I know, I know. I didn't like it either. But it had to be done." He said taking a huge drag from his cigarette. "Actually," As he said that, he reached back in his bag again "I have more of them journals to rip apart." and he took out another three small, black, leather-bounded books - the ones he stole from Rose's library. As she realized what he was holding, her eyes widened again.

"I so knew it!" She snapped her fingers. "And you were coming with your harassment jokes and all..." She took one of the journals from the chuckling Sam and carefully opened them where the bounds of the leather were the most visible. She carefully pulled her fingers through the hems of the leather and gasped as she felt something really was under them. Could it be the other parts of the map? Could everything her mother always told her about Z and Fawcett be true after all? She felt a sudden rush of excitement as he looked up at the man.

For the first time in her life Rose felt that she might have a real goal, she felt a burning urge to dance, laugh, scream and jump at the same time.

"Everything might be true after all!" her eyes lit up with desire to join him and search for the treasure together. "Hey, Sam?" she asked.

He raised his eyebrows slightly as he replied: "Yes, Milady?"

"Don't you happen to be in a desperate need of a partner?" she asked, not sure whether it's a good idea or not. But in terms of her current situation it couldn't really got much worse, could it? And by the side of this man she might be able to really find the very Lost city of Z itself!

"It's gonna be dangerous." Sam stated.

" I guessed it"

"Huxley will be tightly on our heels."

"Yes, I haven't forgotten!"

"In this case, " Sam held out his right hand "Welcome to the team, partner!" Rose happily grabbed his hand and shook it with sparkling eyes.

"I'm Rose Anderson." She introduced herself finally as she decided to trust him.

And from that moment on, Rose Anderson and Samuel Drake became a team with the very goal of finding the legendary Lost City of Z.


	4. Chapter 4: The map

"Wait..." Said Rose as she watched Sam paddling with the cover of one of Fawcett's journals. He paused and looked at her while asking: "What?".

Rose looked around nervously biting the inside of her lips. They were still at the Flamengo Park, out in the broad daylight. She didn't feel safe and she didn't know if it was because of the events that happened an hour earlier, or because of simply the fact that they were about to rip apart a historical relic of a famous adventurer made her feel uneasy. Or both.

"You wanna do it... _here_?" she asked as she was glancing in every direction around them. As if people in the park knew what they were about to do. She knew it wasn't a possibility of course. No one at that beach knew them or what they were holding in their hands. Still she wanted to get out of there as soon as possible and get to somewhere more private.

"Yeah, you are right." said Sam. He quickly got the small black journal back in his bag that he then put across his chest. "Sorry I got a little carried away." his right hand started itching the back of his head while talking. "But where should we go? I don't exactly have a place here you know. I'm sort of just a passerby." said Sam, frowning while trying to think of a possibility.

Rose knew her home wasn't safe for much longer anymore, now that she got herself into all this. She had the suspicions that Huxley's men would probably find out who she was soon and when that happens, they'll sure know where to find her.

But she needed to head home to pack a few of her things together. She couldn't just start an adventure with empty hands. She wasn't even wearing proper clothes for travelling to begin with.

As someone who had to work at an important national library, of course she had to dress for the code. Wearing a blouse and at least knee-high skirts with proper shoes was a minimum. So, she took a deep breath and said: "I think we should head back to my home for the night at least. I also need some stuff and need to change into something less proper."

So now, half an hour later, they were both sitting on Sam's motorcycle again, silently maneuvering by the traffic, turning in on smaller and less crowded streets with every corner.

They didn't talk much. Rose told the directions to her apartment time to time, where to go and where to turn next, but that was all.

Now that her mind could settle down a bit she started to feel the anxiety growing inside her chest, tightening her lungs and stomach, making her heart pump faster and faster and breathing became almost hard.

She nearly died a few hours earlier. And from now on she might never ever be safe again. Teaming up with an obviously dangerous, complete stranger might not have been the best idea ever Rose came up with. Even leaving her boring life now seemed a bit frightening. What if she'll eventually die while searching for something that might not even exist? And now there was no turning back anymore...

As she was thinking she unconsciously tightened her grip around Sam's waist as if holding onto him harder would make things easier. And safer... Sam noticed it and looked at Rose from one of his rearview mirrors.

He saw how worried Rose looked as she was spacing out, thinking about something. She was frowning hard and biting her lips too.

  
"Hey... You okay?" He asked. His voice dragged Rose back to reality and as she looked around, she realized where they were. Her home was just on the next corner in an old, small, leaf green, four story building. "We're here!" she replied with a tired smile.

xxx

Rose was tigging with her keys at the entrance of the apartment while Sam was parking down his bike in front of the building. Her hands were shaking so hard they made it hard to put the key in the lock for the first, second and even the third try.

Just when she could finally open the door Sam stepped next to her. A lighted cigarette was between his lips again. "This man sure smokes a lot" Rose thought and she already opened her mouth to state the fact that her flat was a smoke- free area when she realized that the place, she'd been calling home for more than a year now probably wasn't her home anymore. So, she shut her mouth and remained silent about it.

"It's on the second floor." she said walking up the stairs in the dark, barely lit corridor, leading the way for Sam.

Her door was dark brown with a small golden colored peeking hole. Under it there was a big, also golden colored number "4". In front of hers on the other side of the narrow passageway there was another apartment, number "3", where an old lady with two cats lived.

They never really talked much and Rose liked that about her. Though she had the suspicions that the lady spied on her every time she left or came home through the small peeking hole.

As Rose opened her front door, she couldn't help but think that she must've been watching them now too, wondering who is the man she came with.

She stepped back to let Sam in, but he gestured her to go before him. "Ladies first." he said while putting up a charming smile. This made her cheeks go slightly pink but she tried not to think about it. It was easy for her to become embarrassed by people anyway...

"Oh." said Rose and went ahead. "Right."

Her apartment was small, and well lit. The living room and the kitchen was in the same premise and to save space Rose didn't have a dining table. She just simply sat down at the couch, which was placed to face the balcony doors, and used the coffee table that was standing in front of it as one when she needed.

Lots of books, papers and notebooks where everywhere. Lying on the floor, or thrown at the couch or left at the kitchen counter. It wasn't much tidy but it was cozy and she liked the sight of the books.

She had a small bedroom, opening from the living room, where there was only a double bed and a wardrobe and, also opening from living room, an even smaller bathroom with a tap, toilet and bathtub. It wasn't much, wasn't rich either but she liked it.

"You can sit on the couch if you want to. I don't know if there's anything edible in the fridge because I usually eat somewhere or order something. But hey, the tap water is drinkable..." She said, while going in to her bedroom. "I'll be back in a minute, make yourself home!" she yelled as she shut the door.

She quickly got out of her clothes and threw them on the floor beside her bed. She couldn't help herself but feel a little anxious while standing in front of her open wardrobe in nothing but underwear. She knew Sam wouldn't come in on her while changing but still. It was the first time in years she wasn't completely alone at her home.

She got out a black pair of tight jeans and an also black, loose undershirt. She didn't like colors on herself much. Her skin was too pale for any kind of color honestly. So, she always chose the good ol' black of everything if she had the chance.

When she got back to the other room, Sam was already sitting on the couch, 3 of the old journals placed out in front of him on the small coffee table. He got one in his hand too, and also a swiss knife with which he carefully tried to rip the black binding open.

Rose quietly sat down by him, breathlessly watching his hands working. She didn't say a word because she didn't want to take Sam's attention away from what he'd been doing.

A tiny ripping sound could be heard in the silent room, and as he pulled the leather away, a small yellowed, crispy piece of old paper fell out from under it, onto the table.

Rose gasped and looked at Sam in excitement. He looked back at her for a second, with a half-smile on his lips and grabbed the piece of paper.

It was folded in half and seemed empty, but when Sam opened it carefully, they saw another part of a drawing that seemed to be fitting the first one.

"It's another piece!" Rose whispered. Letters were written on this one too, but they were also in an order that made no sense at all.

He put it next to the other piece they already had and grabbed the next journal. He opened them one by one trying not to cause more damage to the books than needed. When he finished, they had four pieces of paper lying on the table in front of them.

"The order is wrong." Rose stated the obvious while reaching for a piece. She looked at it from different angles, trying to find the correct position. Sam was doing the same with two other pieces.

"I think these two fit each other." He said, placing two different papers next to one another on the table. And he was right, the lines fit together perfectly.

The remaining pieces wasn't difficult to match up after that and soon they had the map put together.

All four of the pieces had a bunch of letters written in the corners: FAA, ACHS, FCFJ and CJHW. At first Rose didn't recognize the map piece, though she had the feeling she already saw it somewhere.

It seemed like a smaller part, not like a huge country or a continent. But as she watched it more and more, listening to Sam's hummings next to her she slowly realized the lines in the middle indicated a fork of a river and an anabranch.

She immediately hopped onto her feet, startling Sam a bit with the sudden movement.

"Whoa!" he said.

"I think I know what's this!" She yelled excitedly as she was desperately looking for an atlas or a map or something. When she finally found it she jumped back to the couch next to Sam and opened it right

away, flipping the pages until she finally found the part of Brazil and the Amazon River.

She pointed at the Xingu River. "See?" Sam got the pieces of the map and put them closer, slowly realizing that Rose was right.

"Yeah..." He said appreciatively. "You are right!" he said, eyes twinkling in excitement. "Seems like we've got an expert here" he said teasingly.

"Well, I've been researching Fawcett's work for almost a decade now." Rose said, proudly straightening her back, Sam chuckling as he watched her.

"But what do these... 'words' mean?" He asked.

"I don't know..." said Rose, frowning and tilting her hide from side to side, trying to recognize a pattern in the letters. "Maybe these are anagrams?"

"No, I don't think so." replied Sam and pointed on the first word. "See? 'ACHS' I tried but I couldn't arrange any of these letters in a reasonable order. The same goes to the other words. They just don't add up."

Rose had been looking at the letters for a minute now when she realized something.

"Hey, Sam." She said absently. "These are all from the first 9 letters of the alphabet only. Except for the 'S' and 'W' " she said, tilting her head to the side a bit.

"Yeah... Yeah! You are right again! Then what if these letters are not letters but... code for numbers?" he said. "And these are not words but..." " _Coordinates!_ " They said the last word together. "And they point right here!" Finished it Sam and put his index finger on the map, next to the middle of Xingu River. "Which means that our next stop is here."

"Okay, but how are we gonna get there?" wondered Rose. She honestly had no idea how someone can get to the middle of the jungle. They can't just simply walk there. That'd would take months to do so. Not talking about ending up just like Fawcett and his crew. Gone missing forever.

"Don't worry." said Sam, having a bright, charming grin on his face again. Rose noticed how he looked a bit younger, almost boyish, when he smiled, and how his face was rather nice with the warmest look in his eyes.

She saw him as a kind and adventurous man now and not someone nurd and suspicious like she did back in the library. And for some reason she wanted to get to know him more for a brief moment.

"I know just the right person for that job!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Thank you for reading this far! :) feel free to write down your opinions on the story, I'm extremely happy to read them! :)


	5. Chapter 5: Tell me about it

"No way!" Rose gasped as she was listening to Sam's stories. The clock was hours past midnight and they'd been talking ever since they solved the journal's puzzle.

After they had the exact location of where to go next, Sam made a phone call with a man called Victor Sullivan. Who incidentally happened to be the owner of a hydroplane.

"Hey Sully." Rose heard Sam talking from the open doors of the balcony. A cool evening breeze tickled her neck as she put all her hair to one side, trying to help herself cool down a bit from the remaining heat of the day that haven't left the room yet.

"You're not gonna believe this," Sam started, while holding the phone between his right ear and shoulder, lighting up a cigarette with both of his hands. "but I just found a partner... Yeah. I almost got her killed back in the library... Yeah, I know, but she's fine! And it also turned out that she's sort of an expert on Fawcett!"

Sam fell silent for a few seconds, listening to Sullivan talking through the phone, taking a very long drag from his cigarette.

"About that, I was right. The diaries contained a map. We got the location of our next clue or even the city itself!" he said, almost laughing and even when he came back after hanging up with Sullivan, he was still smiling wide.

"We're gonna meet him tomorrow evening at the nearest docks." he said, while falling back to the couch, next to Rose, bringing back a scent of cigarettes and fresh night air mixed together. "He's gonna take us to this part of the river." he pulled the map closer and put his index finger at River Xingu's nearest part from their destination. "But from there we'll have to go on foot."

"That's perfect for me." Rose said, but in her mind, she was thinking of the shoes she owned and how none of them were made for tracking in the jungle. All she had was the shoes for work (having a small heel) and apart from them a few sneakers.

"I still can't believe it." she said while pulling her knees to her chin, hugging them tightly, looking Sam in the eyes.

"Can't believe what?" he asked and leaned back on the couch, laying his palms on the back of his head while keeping the eye contact. He was still smiling, looking down at Rose from his own height, happily chewing on his lower lip.

"This day! Everything... What we're doing!" said Rose gesturing her hands around them. "I always dreamed of finding it, but I never really considered the possibility of everything really be true... Like what's next? Atlantis?"

"I know how you feel." he answered with a low voice. His eyes looked at something distant in the back of his mind as his thoughts too drifted somewhere far away.

"When I first came this far to finding the treasure of Henry Avery, I felt the same. It felt unbelievable 'till the very end. Even after seeing it with your own eyes to be honest... "

"Wait, wait, wait..." Rose's eyes widened in disbelief. "You found Avery's treasure? Libertalia and... everything?"

The hours flew by as they were talking. Mostly Sam because Rose just kept asking all the questions and more and more popped into her head while listening to his stories. The clock was ticking silently on the wall, telling how very late it was - almost half past two in the morning, but none of them felt tired.

"And it turned out that El Dorado is just a huge - and cursed - statue." said Sam wildly gesturing with his hands while talking. He seemed to be enjoying the attention he got and thus he happily told the stories he knew.

"No way! Only a statue?" Rose was completely blown away by now. As a soon to be historian she learned and heard about all the tales of lost cities, civilizations, treasures and relics but since all this time no one had ever came up with reasonable evidences about their existences - of course she always believed these were just legends and nothing more. Mistold and badly translated stories from the ancient times.

"And did you and your brother make no photographs, video footages or anything at all?" - she asked. She wanted to see Shambala so badly.

"I asked the same from my little brother when I first heard it too." Sam laughed. Rose looked at him confused.

"Wait, " she said. "You weren't with... him?" Rose observed Sam's face, waiting for his answer. She could see a slight shadow of pain run through his face as he was thinking through his answer.

"We could say that, " he started and paused to put a cigarette between his lips. "I was buried alive at that time." he lighted up his cigar and took a long drag of it before looking at Rose's confused face.

"What do you mean you were buried alive?" she frowned because she honestly didn't understand what he meant. Sam looked her in the eyes and smiled at her, but his smile was rather sad now, than flirty or playful.

"We were in a panamian jail with my brother and Rafe Adler, you know the crazy ass millionaire who almost got us killed during our hunt for Avery's treasure. You remember how we started out as partners?" Rose nodded. "Well, while we were in that jail, he murdered a prison guard so we had to save ourselves and escape quickly. We were so close you know. " he paused for another drag and Rose sit up straighter as she waited for him to continue. "Almost got out together, in one piece. But when I jumped from one roof to another, just on the corner of freedom... I got shot, three times."

Rose gasped but didn't interrupt him. "My brother tried to pull me up, but in the end, I fell - almost 5 meters - and Nathan basically thought he saw me 'die'.

He tried calling the jail and getting any information about me. But the guards wanted to see me rot in there alive after Rafe murdered one of them. I was there for 13 years. I tried sending letters to my little brother, but the only guard that was willing to help me, disappeared the next day and I never got another chance. I was as good as dead." he finished it, sadly smiling at Rose whose eyes were as wide as a pair of coasters.

She didn't know what to say. She felt so sorry for him. Losing 13 years of your life when you're obviously someone who lives for adventures. Her eyes drifted to the birds tattooed on his neck, fully understanding their meaning now. Must've been really painful.

So, she simply - and a a bit awkwardly - placed her hand on Sam's lower arm and honestly said: "I'm sorry."

Sam looked at her small pale hand on his arm first than looked back at her, straight in the eyes. A warm smile appeared on his face as he said: "Don't be. I'm all about catching up with the time I lost."

They were silently looking at each other for a few seconds until Rose realized her palm was still on his arm. She quickly took her hand from there and as she felt her cheeks starting to burn, she looked away from him and started observing the map lying in front of her.

"But enough about me." she heard Sam talking next to her but she didn't look at him - still was waiting for her face to stop burning. "I told you about me, now you tell me about yourself, how about that?"

"There's honestly nothing much about me I could tell you." she said, playing with the corner of the map under her hands. "I have the most boring life one could imagine." she finally looked back at Sam who'd been watching her this whole time. "Seriously. All I did was just studying my whole life."

"Well, your 'just studying' already proved to be quite useful. And things are going to be different from now on." he smiled at her while stretching his arms and back. Rose looked at the clock.

"Oh, god it's so late!" she jumped up to her feet immediately. "I need to pack a few of my things. You can get some rest if you'd like to. I had tested the couch before and trust me it is perfect for sleeping."

"Say no more." said Sam and already started to make himself comfortable on the settee, laying down on his back, placing one of his arms on his forehead while resting the other on his stomach.

Rose turned off the lights in the living room and walked in to her bedroom to get her only backpack out of the bottom of her wardrobe.

She had an old compass she got from Martha for her 12th birthday because back then all she could talk about is how she'd gonna be an explorer one day.

She smiled at the thought of how her silly childish dream was about to come true and put the compass in her backpack. Along with a t-shirt if she might need to change on the road, a map of Brazil, a notebook and mechanical pencil to write everything down she'd encounter and lastly some important notes about Fawcett's last journey's estimated route.

These were the things she thought they'd need during their trip tomorrow.

When she finished, she sat down at the side of her bed, looking around in the small bedroom she might never see again and after a few seconds she threw herself back on the bed.

The curtain on her window slightly moved as a tiny cool breeze made its way in to her room. It felt so nice and pleasant she immediately felt her eyelids became heavy and soon she drifted into a dreamless sleep.

  
***

She felt the hand softly touching her shoulder but didn't want to acknowledge it. All she wanted to do was sleeping. She felt so tired that it hurt her limbs.

"Rose." she heard. "You have to wake up, now!" the voice belonged to a man who talked in a very low voice but it was so urging. Rose frowned in her sleep as she tried to make out who the voice belonged to. Who could he be? Then her eyes popped open as Sam's face drifted into her mind.

"What?" she asked when she saw the sun still wasn't up outside, but the man put his index finger in front of his lips while shushing her. Then he pointed at the front door.

Rose didn't understand what was happening at first but then she heard the voices infiltrate from the passageway and she immediately got to her feet. Silently putting her backpack on her back and a pair of sneakers on her feet.

She stumbled near the door in the dimly lit living room and stood next to it trying to listen to the voices out there.

"Yes, she lives here, she's a nice little lady but she doesn't talk much." she heard the sleepy voice of the old woman next door speak and her stomach twitched as she realized that Huxley's men must be here already and were looking for them.

She looked back at Sam, fear in her eyes and as the man saw this he reached for her arm and started dragging her to the balcony door.

Rose wanted to stop and gather Fawcett's journals and the pieces of the map but someone knocked on her door.

"There's no time..." she heard Sam whisper in the darkness and felt him pulling forward the door.

"But they're gonna..." Rose started insisting but she got cut off by another row of knocking - this time louder and more impatient.

"Come!" said Sam and they were out on the balcony - just when the rumblings on her door begun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> / If you liked this chapter or any other, feel free to leave a comment! :) That would mean the world to me! If you didn't like it I still warmly welcome observations so that I can learn from that. Thank you so much for reading! You are the best! ♥ :)) /


	6. Chapter 6: The chase

"Come on, Rose! Jump'" Sam urged her, under her reaching both of his hands towards Rose's direction who was still hanging on to the fence of the balcony.

She tried looking under herself but immediately felt dizzy and - even though the height was only about two or three meters - she couldn't order her hands to let go of the metal bars.

"It's not that high, I'll catch you!" she heard Sam whispering again and she thought how not just time but heights must be relative too, because she felt like she'd had to jump from the top of a damned skyscraper. "Just a sec..." she answered taking huge, deep breaths from the fresh, night air to calm herself down, pushing her forehead to the cold metal.

She almost let go of the balcony when Sam suddenly looked behind him and then signaled her with his hands to stay right where she was. Immediately after that he pulled himself back under the shadow of the building and disappeared from the sight of Rose completely.

At first, she didn't understand what just happened but then she finally heard the footsteps. Her stomach twisted in fear as she tried to pull herself as close to the balcony as possible, hiding her hanging body as much as she could.

After a few motionless seconds she could finally see who the footsteps belonged to. One of Huxley's men wandered their direction in hope of smoking a cigarette secretly.

He glanced behind him to see if there's anyone who could witness what he was about to do, and stopped right under Rose. She felt her palm become sweatier with every second and her fingers hurt like hell from having to hold her whole weight for so long.

She tried to pull herself up a bit, but her hands slipped and just before Sam could jump on the back of the soldier, Rose fell down. A very tiny scream left her throat as she hopped right on top of the man, knocking him out immediately.

Sam stood there, frozen from surprise, looking at Rose trying to get off of the man lying under her, then shook his head and helped her get up.

"See?" he whispered, amuzement twinkling in the corner of his eyes. "Wasn't that high."

"So funny..." moaned Rose, massaging her aching bottom and watched Sam took the gun of the mercenary.

"You think we'll... we'll need it?" she asked nervously.

"Oh, I'm sure of that." said Sam and after putting the gun in the back of his pants, he grabbed Rose's hand and pulled her close to the wall of the apartment.

They sneaked under the shadows of the building and parking cars, passing by a few of the guards, none of them seeing them at all. It was mostly because of Sam, who lead the way for Rose. All she had to do was copying his motions and they were at his bike in no time.

They hesitated a second in the shadows before hopping on. Sam looked around and Rose did the same. There was no possible way for them to not get seen when they get on the motorcycle. It was right in front of the building where several soldiers and their vehicles parked. Many of them were looking right at their direction.

Sam looked back at Rose, concern in his eyes: "You ready?" he asked and even though she didn't feel herself "ready" at all, she nodded in agreement.

"Then now!" Sam whispered loudly and jumped out from the safe darkness of the shadows, hopped on his bike and by the time Rose jumped behind him, hugging his waist tightly, he already kicked the motorcycle in and when the first shouts of the mercenaries could be heard, they were already flying down the streets.

" _After them!_ "

" _They're there!_ "

Rose heard multiple yells coming from behind and also heard the engines of the military vehicles roar up as they started chasing them.

Sam was an excellent driver, he maneuvered through the thinnest alleys and turned down the narrowest corners without slowing down too much - still Rose heard how they got closer and closer and her heart skipped a beat when the first gunshots were fired.

"Rose, you have to shoot back!" Sam shouted while ducking his head to not get hit. "Take the gun I got from the guard!"

"But I don't know how?!" Rose shouted back, but still, she let go of him with her right hand reached for the gun near Sam's waist.

"Just point and shoot." he answered and so, Rose turned back, holding on to dear life with her left hand, raising the gun and trying to aim with her right, closing one of her eyes. She saw a car and several other motorcycles gaining on them - she quickly decided to direct her gun at the car and pulled the trigger - both of her eyes shut tightly now.

She heard the loud popping sound of a tire and then, right after that, she heard the breaks of the car screaming up. She slightly opened her eyes just to see how the huge vehicle drifted helplessly on the road, spinning around itself just to crash into a lamp post by the road.

"Wow!" said Sam, seeing everything from his rearview mirror. "Did you do that on purpose?" he asked, approvement hiding in his voice.

"Yeah...of course..." Rose answered nervously chuckling, but in reality, it was nothing else, but plain luck.

She kept shooting the other mercenaries riding after them on their motorcycles - about six or so - but she missed too many times. She could shoot a few of them but they were fast, constantly driving from right to left and back, making it extremely hard for Rose to aim at them.

They were gaining on them fast and then, the bullets ran out. Rose desperately pulled the trigger a few more times but nothing happened - the gun only clicked emptily in her hand.

"Damn!" she cursed as they got so close and in her helpless anger, she threw the empty weapon at the nearest soilder with all her might. It hit him right in the middle of his face and first he just lost control over his bike - the vehicle started shaking under him, wilder and faster every second - but then he fell too.

Two more bikers crashed into him, making them fall off their own motorcycles, flying meters in the air before banging the concrete road with their bodies.

"You're scary sometimes, do you know that?" she heard Sam asking.

"We've got nothing left..." Rose turned back to hold onto him with both of her arms again, hugging his chest tightly, pulling her body as close to his as possible so that her weight wouldn't pull the motorbike to wrong directions.

"Then hang on!" Sam yelled and sped the motorcycle up as much possible. The air stung Rose's eyes, her hair wildly flying behind her in the air and she couldn't even imagine how Sam could see anything at all at this gear.

Everything blurred into a big grey and black mass they passed by and even breathing felt hard for her. She'd never been this afraid in her life before - one wrong move and they'd both be dead in an instant.

She glanced back carefully and happily found the mercenaries already struggling to keep up so, when Sam turned down an alley going downhill - it was so sudden Rose couldn't help but let out yet another small scream - they disappeared from sight for long seconds.

A few of them still tried to follow but he kept turning in on small and narrow streets and after a few minutes Huxley's men lost their track. The duo could finally feel safe again.

Still, Sam kept driving for another fifteen minutes or so, keeping the speed at the maximum, just to make sure they lost the mercenaries completely. Only slowed down when they got near the seaside again and drove right up to the docks where they'd meet with Victor Sullivan in the evening.

When the engine stopped, Rose got off of the bike but she felt her knees so wobbly and week she fell down to the concrete right away.

"Whoa, hey... " Sam crouched next to her. "Hey, are you okay?" he asked and put his hand on her shoulder.

Rose pulled her knees up to put her face between them, taking huge, deep breath from the cool, salty air, trying to swallow her stomach back to its original place. She felt a wave of shock running through her body as the adrenaline said its final goodbyes and her limbs started trembling a bit.

"Oh my god... " she mumbled, her face still resting on her knees. She than gathered her strength to lift up her head and looked at Sam who genuinely seemed concerned. Her pale compression reminded him of ghosts from old Shakespeare plays but he didn't pointed it out.

"This was... " she started, but she had to swallow again to keep her insides down her throat. "This was... _awesome_!" she said finally, her eyes lighting up excitedly.

Sam let out a small sigh of relief and sat down next to Rose on the ground, laughing slightly.

"What? "he then asked. "You almost died and now you're happy about it?" he wondered honestly.

"I've never done anything like this before! Did you see how I shot the tires of the car?" she asked excitedly. "And then the car started spinning and then it crashed! And you were so awesome! How could you even see anything at that speed!"

Rose couldn't see it because she was so heated up and deep into talking, but as Sam looked at her, listening to her enthusiasm, the most genuine and warmest smile appeared on his face, not taking his eyes off of her for even a second.

He secretly liked how pure excitement and joy changed her features completely, making her almost glow in his eyes.

They sat on the ground, near the docks, talking and laughing, watching the Sun rising slowly. Until the first, morning people arrived. Joggers and early workers appeared more and more often and they decided it was time to sit back up on the bike and find a place where they could wait until Sullivan arrived.

***

The sun was still slightly up, painting the very bottom of the horizon into a mixture of rosy pink and deep orange, twinkling on the waves of the ocean, attacking the remains of the day with it's last flushes of heat. Sam and Rose stood on a wooden dock, wiping the sweat off their foreheads, watching Sully parking his hydroplane near them.

The plane twirled up the air around and it felt so good; Rose gathered all her hair from her back into her hands, trying to help her neck cool down a bit.

The propellers of the hydroplane slowly stopped spinning and after a moment the door of the flying vehicle threw open, and a man in his early sixties stepped out to the docks. Sam immediately started his way towards him and the two warmly welcomed each other.

"Sullivan!" he said, hugging the man instantly.

"Hey, boy-o. It's good to see you again." Sullivan hugged back and they lapped each other's back, asking how the other was.

Rose watched them, awkwardly holding her backpack in her hands, nervously waiting to be introduced. Meeting new people always made her anxious.

As she watched the two man have a little chat she wondered why it was diffferent with Sam? Maybe all the danger that came with him from the very first moment...

"And she's Rose here, " gestured Sam towards her. "Our very own Sir Perc Harrison Fawcett expert!"

"Rose Anderson." she held out her hand out to Sullivan and he immediately took it, smiling welcomingly at her.

"Victor Sullivan here." he said. "I heard this man tried to get you killed already."

"Well, I'd say it isn't, but it's true." Rose answered, chuckling.

"I suggest, you get used to that fast. It's kind of a bad habit of him." winked Sullivan at the girl who answered with a genuine laugh.

" _Hey!_ I'm not the most dangerous one here!" Sam said, raising both of his hands in the air to show his innocence. "You didn't see how Rose had gotten rid of a complete army just a few hours ago!"

"Well then, I see you two got a lot to tell me already. How about we get on the plane, and you tell me everything on the way?" he suggested while pointing his thumb behind his back, right on his hydroplane.

After an hour of flying above Brazil, a lot of talking and planning, they were now getting nearer and nearer to their destination with each passing second. Sully started lowering his plane as they reached that part of River Xingu's they talked about earlier.

It was already pitch black out there and no sign of light could be seen around anywhere near, except for the full moon and twinkling stars above their heads, watching them silently from the sky.

Sam prepared two sticks of wood covered in old rags that he'd soaked in gasoline before, so that they could burn better. He gave one of the torches to Rose, while keeping the other one for himself. In the last fifteen minutes of their flight, Rose had been reading her notes about Fawcett's routes, scribbleing every deatail she found important into her small notebook.

She got her compass out of the bottom of her backpack and put it in her jeans' pocket, just in case they'd need it fast.

She felt a bit anxious but she swallowed the feeling back as she stumbled onto her feet when feelt the plane landing on the water.

Sullivan turned back from the driver's seat. "Well. We're here." he said and handed a walkie talkie to Sam. "Keep in touch okay? I'm still not the ' _It's all good 'till you don't give info's about yourself_ ' type." he said and looked at both of them, a little concern twinkling in his eyes.

"We will keep in touch. Don't worry." said Sam, lapping his shoulder with one of his hands. "Gonna be a light evening walk isn't it?" he said as he opened the door of the hydroplane and jumping out to the ground.

"Yeah, isn't it?" chuckled Rose nervously and turned back to Sully from the door. "Thank you for bringing us here."

"Just be okay, kiddos." said Sullivan and Rose stepped out of the plane, to the damp and soft ground of the jungle.

The smell of fresh, lively, green leaves and the river itself hit her senses like a bomb and filled her nose and lungs. The air was humid and thick and the silence of the night was filled with the sound of water calmly flowing, creatures inside the jungle living their lives and insects buzzing all around them.

Sam already lighted up his own torch and now reached his to help Rose get lit up hers as well. The light hugged their figures tightly and stretched their trembling shadows behind them as they looked at the thick vegetation towering right in front their - compared to the jungle - small shapes.

They glanced at each other, silently nodded in agreement that it was time to go, and stepped into the jungle not knowing what still lied ahead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! All kinds of comments are welcome :) Let me know if you'd like to read more :))


	7. Chapter 7: The jungle

The jungle clearly didn't sleep at night. It drove Rose crazy that, even though she didn't see anything, she could hear everything.

Little noises, rattling sounds, and tappings of small feet running could be heard from every direction, accompanied with scratching sounds on tree barks and insects buzzing constantly.

Hearing all these, Rose couldn't help but feel uneasy and was constantly afraid of losing sight of Sam who'd been walking in front of her, looking completely calm but sharp as ever.

She tried to walk as close to him as possible but she kept stumbling upon roots of the trees and bushes grew out of the ground, being completely hidden under leaves and living plants that grew all over everything.

She kept checking her compass as she was also afraid of ending up just like Fawcett and his crew did. If their calculations were right, they'd had to walk almost 4 kilometers south-west to end up where the coordinates showed.

It wasn't a hard task, but it was dark and extremely humid and these two factors made it a lot more difficult.

"You alright back there?" Sam stopped to check up on her after a while. She gratefully stopped to catch her breath, feeling a drop of sweat run all the way down her spine, starting at her neck and ending up at the dip of her waist under her tank top.

"Yeah, it's just..." she started, but had to pause for taking another deep breath. "Why are we doing this at night, exactly?" Rose asked finally, looking up at Sam, wiping off sweat off her forehead with her right arm.

She saw how, in the twinkling lights of their torches, sweat was gleaning on him too, leaving darker patches on his shirt, glistening on his forehead and upper lip and for a second, her thoughts drifted away to wonder if he'd been this attractive from the beginning or was it just the lighting?

"Huxley's got the notes of Fawcett, you forgot?" Sam asked, tearing Rose back to the moment. "He's not that dumb, he might've already figured out the coordinates himself. Just remember how fast he'd found out where you lived." he stated the obvious facts cocking one of his eyebrows.

"Fair enough..." she answered, slapping herself internally for her silly thoughts before. "We should keep going then."she said and went ahead, hurrying her steps up, being thankful now that it was dark, helping to hide her crimson face.

She checked her compass, time to time and corrigated their way when needed.

The noises of the jungle still made her nervous - not seeing what made them especially. She expected a tiger or a cougar jump on them any second, so, to ease herself - even though she guessed it would be wiser to keep as low as possible - she asked Sam: "Why's it so important for Huxley to find the City of Z?"

Sam cuffed. "All Huxley cares about is the _great_ treasure." he simply answered. "It drove him mad, thinking of the gold, the roof of the houses and roads were made of in Z. He read all these legends off the endless wealth - Z being the Brazilian El Dorado - and became completely obsessed with it."

Rose almost forgot those parts of her mother's stories which told about the richness of Z. She enjoyed the details about the adventure and discoveries the most. The reason she herself wanted to find it had nothing to do with any treasure either.

Then she wondered, what could the reason for Sam be?

"And you?" she asked after a while. "Why do you want to find it?" she was honestly curious.

"Me?" Sam stopped for a second. "It really is just the discovery itself, you know." he gestured with both of his hands while talking. "I just feel like I was destined for... for this..." he now pointed all around them. "There's nothing else behind it, really." and he sounded completely honest for Rose. She hadn't known him that much yet but what she learned about him telled her that his life must really be about being an adventurer at the heart.

She didn't answer right away as she was lost in her thoughts so Sam asked: "You still not talking about yourself?" doing his well known, boyish grin again and Rose couldn't resist this time.

"I want to just see it as well." she said in the end, smiling softly while talking. "You know, when I was little, my mom used to tell me all these stories about every kind of legend and historical happenings. I was completely in love with them, all of them. But my favourite had always been the ones about Fawcett and Z." she paused as the memories of her mother drifted into her mind. "When my mom died, I lost my purpose a bit. Everything that felt important before just became a routine for me... And then, you waltzed your way into my life one day, telling me that everything Mom used to tell me about might be true and I felt alive again, I felt that I might have a reason in my life and not just acting like a machine from day to day. Wanting nothing from life just... just waiting for each day to end..." she felt so strange, opening up to someone for the first, in a very long time. She even feelt nervous a bit and she started to regret that she spoke at all.

Her steps had slowed down while talking, but she didn't even notice it. As she didn't notice Sam either, who now walked next to her. His touch on her back startled her a bit. She looked up at him and they stopped, Sam right in front of Rose, being so close.

Before he spoke he took a few seconds to just silently look her in the eyes and Rose didn't know why but she felt a sudden urge to...

"Hey." he said, smiling so warmly it made Rose's stomach stir in a strange way. "We'll find it, I'm sure." it wasn't much but still Rose was thankful that he didn't laugh or pitied her.

She couldn't answer anything as her mind felt so numb at that moment, under his gaze, so she just smiled stood there, in the completely silent jungle... Wait. _In the completely silent jungle_?

"Do you hear it?" Rose asked Sam who frowned not understanding1 what he should be hearing all of a sudden.

"What?" he asked then, looking around suspiciously. "I don't hear a thing."

"Yeah... Exactly!" said Rose, starting to feel really nervous. "Nothing can be heard. No bugs, no other animals, not even the leaves... _Nothing_..."

Sam stood closer to her as he understood what she was talking about; he even put his arms out slightly in a sort of protective way as he kept gazing deep into the darkness of the jungle.

"Well, this isn't creepy at all..." he said after a while, still looking serious. "Let's get going and get the hell out of here as soon as possible."

Rose silently nodded in agreement and they both started to walk again.

"Stay close!" Sam said as he led the way. Rose tried to keep up as much as possible. She held her torch way above her head to light the ground under her feet, not trying to trip over every branch and root this time.

She sometimes glanced around uneasily, looking for reasons of the sudden silence but nothing seemed to be different. She even looked above their heads but only the dully glowing full moon could be seen trough the foliage.

The sight of the perfectly round orb floating mysteriously on the dark sky reminded Rose of something important in the back of her mind, something she once read about in one of her books, but she couldn't recall what it was no matter how hard she tried to remember. It just didn't want to come into her mind.

  
It bothered Rose a lot because the only thing she could remember that it wasn't a good thing.

She kept thinking and trying hard to remember when, suddenly, she bumped into Sam, making her almost fall back to her bottom.

"Hey, watch out, girl." he said softly as he crouched down. "I think I see something here..." and he started tearing the plants off the ground. Rose crouched next to him, observing what he'd been doing and she started seeing it too.

Under the heavy and thick layer of deep green plants, there layed an old, molded peace of rock.

It was clearly visible it wasn't something natural - that human hands carved it into shape. So she started helping Sam clean the rock up from the plants that grew all over it through centuries, while laying there, being completely forgotten.

It wasn't an easy task as the plants were strong and extremely thick, they needed both of their hands so they got the torches and stuck them deep into the ground.

They worked for long, sweaty minutes and by the time they finished their hands had scratches and dirt all over them, painfully aching from the battle with the jungle's green inhabitants.

"Oh my god..." Rose gasped as they stepped back to have a look at the piece of rock they had just cleaned up.

It was old, anyone could see it, and all the carvings on it seemed to be portraying some sort of a... scene, maybe? The round rock was divided into three parts; the top part was the creepiest of them all as it showed skulls on dried bodies being distorted into a screaming grin - or howl maybe? All looking above their heads, suffering in great pain.

"Very uplifting." Sam said as he pulled his calloused fingers through the top layer of carvings. "Maybe these are souls?"

"Could be..." Rose added, flinching from the thought of the idea behind it. All they needed was a curse now...On the second layer, there was nothing else but a palm sized, round, golden orb, having a shape, that reminded Rose of the Sun itself, but not completely.

"What do you think this one could be?" she wondered, tilting her head from side to side, trying to view it from different angles, but still having no other idea.

"It looks like a sun to me." said Sam and took out his notebook to quickly scribble something down.

For Rose, the bottom part of the pictures was the most interesting. It was divided into a left and a right side. On the left people were reaching their arms for the sky, all looking at something above their heads. Their face was frozen into a forever admiring grin.

On the right side it wasn't human but dolphins doing the same - without arms - and seeing them a word immediately popped into Rose's head.

" _Encantado_." She said it out loud.

"Hmm?" Sam hummed, while scribbling into his notebook, not understanding what Rose had just said.

"The dolphins." She answered, pointing at the portrayal. "They remind me of the Encantado." Sam closed his notebook and took a closer look at the carvings himself as well.

"They are... cursed creatures right?" He asked, sounding a bit unsure of his knowledge.

"Yeah, they are men's souls trapped in another dimension for eternity as a punishment for pursuing riches only. They are destined for a hapless life, desiring the joys they used to have as humans." She explained, looking at the piece of rock from different angles.

And then she noticed it. On the two sides of the rock, two handles were placed. When she realized what they were she finally saw how the three parts of the rocks must have been in the wrong order and she could almost feel the switch turning on inside her skull, finally enlightening her thoughts.

"Sam! Look at these!" pointed Rose at the handgrips, excitement trembling in her voice as she stood next to one to take a closer look.

"These are handles?" asked Sam, his eyes getting wider in realization as well. He also stood next to one on the opposite side, in front of the thrilled Rose.

"Let's see what they do." he said and grabbed the one closest to him. Rose did the same and on the count of three they started pushing the arm with all their strength.

And just as Rose hoped, the big rock started twisting under their force. She felt how the ground under her feet deepened as she pushed herself using all the strenght she got.

After a full turn they stopped - to catch their breath - and to observe if any change they had made by twisting the rock.

"Look," Sam said between two huffs. "They changed place."

And he was right. The top part - with the creepy howling skulls - was in the middle now and the part with the golden orb was on the top.

"We need to turn it one more time." Rose said because she got the feeling that the part in the middle should be on the bottom, while the praising men and dolphins should go to it's place.

So, after letting out a huge and tired sigh, they stepped back to the handles and - for the last time, they hoped - started pushing the wheel with all their might.

When they stopped the order was as how Rose imagined it.

On the top the orb, in the middle the dolphins and humans, looking at it now and in the last panel the cursed souls crying.

She looked at Sam who looked back at her and for a second, doubt rushed trough both of their minds as nothing had happened but then - at first it was barely noticeable - they felt a soft rumbling starting under their feet. The rumbling then became stronger and stronger and was now so hard it felt like an earthquake.

"What the...Rose!" she heard Sam shouting her name as the ground opened up, right under her feet and she felt herself falling into the newly manifested hole. She let out a small scream of surprise and stiffened her body in fear as she felt herself hurtling down, when Sam's fingers locked onto her wrist and the falling stopped.

"I got you!" He said while holding onto her and as Rose looked up right into his face, she felt her racing heart beating up even faster. She saw how he'd threw himself at the edge of the opening, holding himself with his left arm, pulling Rose with his right.

"Thank you..." she said gratefully when she finally felt the ground under herself again and sat down at the edge of the hole to help herself calm down. Sam sat down as well, right next to her and answered with a tired „a-ha!".

"Look at that." he said while pulling a cigarette out of the pocket on his denim shirt.

Rose could see how a stairway was leading down into the pitch black darkness under them. She felt both excited and also afraid at the same time looking at the mysteriously gaping lightless tunnel.

"Do you think that's it?" she asked. "There's gonna be Z at the end of this heading?" she felt thrilled even at the thought of it, but Sam shaked his head with a doubtful grin on his face and said: "Well, it's never this easy." Rose wondered if what they'd already been through is considered "easy" for him then what the definition of hard could be in his dictionary?

She opened her mouth to voice her thoughts when she heard something. A noise, finally coming from the still completely silent jungle but it sent shivers down her spine.

It sounded like _hooves pounding_... but what on earth would make a sound like that in the jungle?

"Did you hear that?" She asked but by the time she finished her sentence Sam was already on his feet, with the torches in his hands and stepping on the butt of his cigarette.

"Yeah..." he said, giving Rose one of the light sources and stepped to the edge of the stairs leading into the darkness. "I don't know what made that sound but I suggest we don't wait for it to show up."

Rose nodded in agreement and stood next to him. She held her torch up higher trying to see the end of the stairway but it was so long, she couldn't see where it led.

She tried to swallow her fear down and looked up at the man beside her.

"Then, let's go?" she asked. Sam looked back at her, his face was tense and serious and now. Rose could see the wrinkles time has carved into his features.

He didn't seem old because of them but tough and cunning and this, for some reason, calmed her. She almost felt safe in his presence.

"Let's go." He agreed and they stepped on the first tread, into the darkness...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heey!! Thank you so much for reading! If you feel like, leave a comment! :) I'm always happy to read them! ❤


	8. Chapter 8: Underground

The stairs went down for so long, Rose felt like they had already climbed down hundreds of meters when they finally got to their end. At the last step she stopped to glance back, hoping to see anything else than the pitch-black darkness and the cold stone corridor but couldn't see the opening anymore.

They were completely underground; the only sources of light were the two torches in their sweating hands. She guessed that being buried alive must have felt almost like the same.

"Stay close, okay? And keep your eyes open, there might be traps down here..." said Sam as he held his torch above his head as much as he could, trying to see as far as possible. Although he couldn't do much since the ceiling of the tunnel was so low, his hair was almost brushing it.

Rose felt extremely uneasy in the narrow underground passageway. If anything attacked them down here, there weren't much escape routes they could take.

She honestly hoped that, whatever made the sound of hooves up there, wouldn't want to follow them here anytime soon.

"Let's go." She said for she wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. She took deep breaths to calm herself down a bit and cursed her shaking hand that was holding the torch as they marched their way deeper and deeper into the unknown depths of the tunnel.

The air she breathed in was cool and felt ancient as well as dusty, mixed with the smell of ground and mold. They must have been the first to come down here in at least a hundred years and fresh air hadn't had the chance to enter ever since Fawcett's time.

As the trembling lights of the torches broke the darkness, spiders and other insects of every size could be seen running to hide from the warmth, sending shivers down Rose's spine. She wasn't very fond of any kind of bugs...

On the walls, under the thick layers of dust and spider's web, she could see carvings of the same figures they saw on the rotating rock, back at the entrance.

The difference here was that they weren't divided into three separate sections now. Humans, dolphins and the souls were all mixed up together, looking, pointing and reaching their arms to the direction Sam and Rose were heading towards to.

She kept glancing back checking if there was anything that followed them but all she could see was only the pitch-black darkness. Still, she felt the small hairs on her neck rise up as she constantly felt someone invisible watching them.

Sam walked in front of her, his steps were resolved but careful as he watched each and every step he took. Seeing his huge and steady figure calmed Rose down a bit. What could happen if he's with her? Nothing that bad... right?

She watched as his masculine arm held his torch up, hugging his shape into the warm and playfully twinkling lights of the fire. She saw all the muscles on his back and neck being tightened and her eyes followed the curves of these muscles being drawn out under his shirt, starting to wander to lower parts of his body...

"Stop it!" she hissed at herself as her thoughts again wandered dangerously far from reality. She needed to focus. Sam was like a colleague anyway, wasn't he? Also, she wasn't such an attractive woman to catch the attention of a man like Sam. For her own sake, she needed to stop with these thoughts already!

"What?" Sam asked, and looked back at Rose above his shoulder.

"Nothing! Really, just a spider." she lied and was happy Sam didn't ask further questions. This was really not the time to wonder about what these sudden feelings towards Sam were, and where'd they come from?

"I think I see the end." he said after a while of silent walking and pointed in front of him. The tunnel still went on for tens of meters but at the end, hiding in the darkness there really were two huge and heavy wings of stone doors, both filled with carvings from floor to ceiling.

"Let's hurry!" answered Rose who still hadn't been able to shake off the feeling that someone was following them, staying well behind the cover of shadows.

She clenched onto her torch, and fastened her steps up so that she could catch up with Sam. When they reached the door together, they stopped to have a look at the carvings but the same scenery greeted them again. This time with much more details.

Where the two wings of the door met, there was the golden orb, cut in half with all the same creatures under, admiring it. But now it seemed like the whole scenery took place in an enormous cave, the orb taking place in the highest arch of it.

They silently pushed their shoulders to the doors but before opening them, they looked at each other - just to nod in agreement.

"On three?" asked Sam.

"On three."

"One, two..." they counted together and started pushing. The doors opened slowly, very slowly, even though they were using all their weight. They felt a cool breeze run by their face, that tickled their skin and playfully grabbed a few strands of their hair and then the wings of the door gave in to their forces and opened up fully at once.

Sam raised his torch above his head as he stepped into the hall that opened up in front of them. It was a square shaped room, with a ceiling that reached way above their heads - two or maybe even three meters high.

In the middle there were two rows of thick pillars guiding the way into the back of the hall where there was a huge picture carved into the wall. As Rose looked at it from far, it seemed like a huge map or a landscape of some sort of mountain and it focused on especially one part of it - on a huge cave entrance.

As they walked closer and closer Rose now could how there was the golden orb in the middle of the cave, palm sized and the same word written all around in Mayan language.

"Paraíso..." she heard Sam read it out loud next to her.

"Paradise... " she repeated the word in English." This must be our next lead isn't it? But I don't know where this could be..." she said absently, trying to recognize the carved mountain in front of her. But no matter how hard she focused, it wasn't even similar to her.

"It's a mountain range in Mato Grosso, called the Serra do Roncador." Sam explained and took his notebook out the scribble it down. Also trying to draw everything that were carved into the wall in front of them.

"Look at you!" Rose looked at him, approvingly. "I guessed you were good at history but now geography as well?"

"You know, thirteen years in prison, all I could do was reading and working out." he shrugged.

"Yeah, I guessed that..." said Rose as her eyes wandered - again - to check out his biceps softly glistening under the drops of sweat lighted by their torches. Of course, she meant it for the working out part but deeply hoped Sam took it for the reading.

She took another look at the wall in front of her as well, when she noticed something. The small golden orb here seemed so out of place. She reached her hand to touch it, and at first, she just gently stroked the cold metal under her fingers, but then, just to give it a try, she pushed it like she'd do with button of an elevator.

She heard a small clicking sound and the orb came out of the wall.

"Sam look at this!" she gasped as she held the small, and cold metal artifact in her hands. He stood next to her and leaned closer to have a better look, bringing his torch as well.

"Nice job!" Sam smiled at her. "Can I...?" he asked before taking it, and Rose gave it to him, silently nodding - she was still speechless by the fact that she held a real artifact in her own two hands! In fact, she was the one who found it! Treasure hunting might not be that hard after all...

He started rotating the small item between his experienced fingers, checking it from every angle and after a while he said: "It seems like a part of some machine maybe..." he furrowed his brow and gave it back to her. "We might need it on our way."

Rose immediately, and very carefully, put it into the very bottom of her backpack, that she then put back on her sweating back. She wouldn't even wanted to imagine the possibility of losing it accidentally.

Sam went back to quickly finish his sketches, and Rose, not wanting to bother him, wandered to check the hall completely before they left. It was mostly empty, and really seemed like it existed just for the sole purpose of showing the next stop for those who were desperate enough to look for the legendary city this far.

Here as well everything was covered in webs and dust and as she slowly wandered around, looking at the walls, observing the sceneries carved onto them, she felt her shoe kick something lying on the ground.

As she stopped to check it, she felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured into her neck and shivers immediately started to run throughout her body. Under her feet there lay a skeleton, old clothes wrapping his shape instead of his long rotten skin.

"Oh my god, Sam... " she moaned in horror as she crouched next to the remains of the corpse to have a better look.

It seemed like his right leg and jaw were broken badly, his clothes were torn apart and something that seemed like a huge, yellow claw was deeply stuck in his chest, right where this poor man's heart once used to be.

Next to its body there was an old pistole on the ground, covered in a thick layer of dust. He was holding onto a small black notebook with one of his hands that was almost identical to the ones that hid Fawcett's clues.

It overall seemed like he got into a fight with a bull at least...

The sound of hooves drifted into Rose's mind again, as she reached her hand out to get his notebook. The bones of his fingers creaked painfully as she tried to open them up and, in the end, she had to broke off of his thumb to get to the small, black leather bounded journal from him.

"I'm sorry..." she said, just when Sam finally got next to her.

"Oh crap..." cursed the man quietly as he saw all the broken bones and teared fabric. "What the hell had happened to this poor bastard?" he asked, leaning closer to the corpse, observing the clues. When he saw the pistole lying on the ground next to it, he took it, checked if there were still any ammo left in it, and then put in the back of his pants.

"I don't know but it seems like he fought a rhino..." said Rose as she tried to swallow back her stomach that been twirling wildly at the sight of the remains lying in front of her. "He had this with himself..." she said and raised the notebook. "Maybe we'll get to know more after we read it."

"We get back to Sully first, I suggest." he said as he reached towards the corps, to pull the claw out of his chest. He sure wanted to examine it, but as he pulled it, the remains started to fall apart.

The head of the skeleton fell down, and rolled away surprisingly loud. The sound of bone hitting the stone under it echoed loudly around them, making both Rose and Sam twitch. The sudden loudness after the complete silence almost hurt for them to listen to.

When it finally stopped, their ears were still ringing for a few more seconds and they motionlessly waited for something to happen.

For a brief moment, only enough for them to let out a sigh of relief, everything remained calm.

But then, they heard the roar of a beast, coming from way too close...

"What on earth...?" Rose gasped, her eyes widened but she didn't have time to finish her sentence as Sam immediately grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the shadow of a pillar, being the closest to them, while kicking Rose's torch as far from them as possible. He pushed her to the cold stone and pressed his body against hers, trying to hide both of them.

Rose felt her heartbeat racing but was it because of the roar, or because of this extreme closeness of Sam? Or both...

A second later, something out of this earth, strode into the dark hall. Rose tried to catch a glimpse of it, but it was almost completely black. The only sources of lights - their torches - were meters away from them and the monster - making it almost impossible to see anything at the entrance of the hall.

But they could clearly hear the hooves of the creature pounding against the stone floor, getting closer and closer to them with each step...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd really be glad to read your opinions about the story, so if you feel like, feel free to leave a comment! Thank you so much for reading! You are the best!! ♥


	9. Chapter 9: Bestafera

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you soooo much for reading!! ♥♥♥

As the hooves pounded against the stone blocks of the floor closer and closer with each step, Sam silently raised his left hand up to signal Rose their escape plan. It was really simple. _Get out of the hall as soon, and as silent as possible_.

Rose nodded and for the sake of not losing Sam in the darkness, the trembling fingers of her right hand clasped onto his calloused left ones. They both peeked out from behind the pillar to see if the monster was looking at their direction or it was safe for them to try and go.

This time Rose had the chance to finally take a better look at the creature and it was something she had only seen in books and illustrations before...

The creature had a man's naked torso, though it was so hairy it almost seemed like it had fur covering its body. Where its human legs should had have been, there were two large and hairy legs that seemed like a bull's - even ending in enormous, _shiny black hooves_.

Its head belonged to a bull as well, though it didn't have horns on his forehead only but two large, yellow fangs stuck out of its dripping lips as well. And on the hands, they saw the large claws that were identical to the one that got stuck into the heart of the corpse they were examining just a few minutes ago.

So, this was the creature this poor man had had to face before he died...

Seeing this monster, Rose immediately remembered why she felt so uneasy before, in the jungle, when she saw the full moon. The sound of hooves and the silence of the jungle explained it as well.

She once read about it in a book that wrote about Brazilian folklore tales and creatures. It was the _Bestafera_...

"Sam..." she whispered as quietly as possible. She was almost just forming the words with her lips, but Sam looked back at her immediately to listen.

"Whatever you do, don't look into its face!" She now remembered everything she read about it.

This creature was said to be coming straight from hell on the nights of full moon, and the only purpose of its existence was to terrorize people. Whoever had a glance at its face went crazy immediately...

It's got to be some sort of guardian of Z, Rose thought and for the sake of her own, now seemingly so fragile sanity, she tried not to imagine the other obstacles they would have to face throughout the rest of their journey.

Sam nodded and carefully glanced back at the direction of the creature. When he saw that it was showing its back to them, he immediately started to pull Rose towards the entrance of the hall.

They stopped at the last pillar, to check if it was still safe, and when they saw that the monster was now examining their torches laying on the other side of the room, they headed right for the entrance.

Rose's heart beat so fast and so loud she was afraid the creature might hear it as they silently stepped closer and closer to the entrance of the hall. Her leg felt shaky and her palm was sweating. She tried not to think about what would happen if they just made one tiny wrong movement...

When they got out, it was almost completely dark. The remaining rays of the torches' light, that reached the end of the hall were only enough for them to see where the walls of the tunnel were. They both put their free hands on the right side of the underground building, trying to navigate themselves blindly.

They still hadn't let go of each other and they went as fast as they could without making too much noise. After a few minutes they got through the half of the passageway already but then they heard the angry roar...

It was so out of this earth that all the hairs on Rose's body immediately rose up and a cold shiver ran down her spine.

"It knows we are not in there anymore..." said Sam and he was now almost running, pulling the girl after himself. It didn't matter anymore whether they were silent or not - they'd just had to be fast enough.

When they reached the first step of the stairway, they already heard the hooves of the beast gaining upon them.

They ran as fast as they could, but it was still almost completely dark and even though Rose was trying her best not to, she felt her shoe kick the edge of a step end she fell...

She felt the sharp pain struck into her right knee, and tears filled her eyes immediately but she didn't have time deal with the pain now. Sam helped her up quickly and they could already see the opening of the tunnel when...

" _Freeze_!" they heard the loud command and seeing who shouted those made them stop immediately.

About ten or maybe even fifteen of Huxley's mercenarvies were standing right in front of the entrance of the tunnel, all holding the barrel of their rifles directly pointing at the duo. They had their reflectors set up already, and even started to build their little military camp as well.

So, Huxley was really just one step behind them...

_But w_ _hat the hell were they going to do now?!_

The pounding of the hooves behind them came from closer and closer and they were completely cornered. Rose looked up at Sam who was standing next to her, scanning the area around them with his sharp, hazel eyes, checking their possibilities.

"Hands in the air!" they heard the next command, but the angry roar coming from behind the duo startled even the mercenaries.

"Jump!" shouted Sam just before the monster could reach them and pushed Rose to the side, far from the opening of the stairway. He jumped after her as well, and they both landed with a loud thud on the moldy and humid ground of the jungle. Rose let out a small scream as she fell onto her injured knee, possibly making it worse.

As they got up to their feet again, they heard the gunshots, the screams and shouts and the angry roars behind them breaking out. Sometimes the sound of tree branches crushing under bodies and grenades blowing up joined the orchestral chaos of voices and it was clear that the monster and the mercenaries were fighting each other.

As they got farer away with each step, less and less gunshots and screams could be heard.

Rose tried her best to run, but no matter how hard she tried not to, she did have to limp a bit.

She was sure that the adrenaline rushing through her body made it a lot less painful though, and she missed these times in advance, knowing that soon there would be the time when the pain kicks in, after the sweet drug left her body.

They both had to concentrate now if they didn't want to fall after every step as their only light source was the starry sky, way above the thick foliage of the jungle. Even after their eyes got used to the darkness, it was still hard to see anything properly.

Rose stopped to check her compass sometimes, but in such less light it didn't have much point doing it. She just silently hoped that they'd reach Sully before the monster... the Bestafera would reach them.

They were walking for long, sweaty minutes and the sounds of the fights they left behind couldn't be heard for a while now. It meant that either the monster or the mercenaries won. The only question now was that who overcame who and how much time they'd got left until they or _it_ made after them.

Just when Rose finally started to hope they might have the chance to get to Sully without any further difficulties - was too nice to be true anyway - Sam stopped and held his right hand in the air, signaling the girl to do the same.

"Do you hear it?" he asked. At first, she didn't hear a thing - she even held her breath back and turned her head to the side, trying to focus better. But then, it was clearly audible, that something was roaming in the jungle, and they had no doubt it was coming after them...

"Can you run?" asked Sam and looked at Rose's awkwardly held injured leg.

"I don't know... I can try..." she said, but when she looked Sam in the eyes, he saw the fear evincing on her face.

He hesitated for a second, looking around them, trying to find a solution, and then he said: "I'm sorry, milady..." he pushed Rose so hard, though it wasn't a hard task with her injured leg, that she immediately fell onto her back, right into a bush with the biggest leaves Rose had ever seen.

It even cut her arms, face and neck at some places, but she didn't have the time to pay attention to the newly gotten little wounds. Sam also jumped after her to hide, right on top of Rose - protecting and holding her body down with his own, seconds before the beast rushed out from behind the nearby trees of the jungle.

They both held their breath back and didn't make a single movement as they listened to the beast roam around them for a few seconds. Stopping sometimes to sniff in the air or to hit a tree with its giant claws.

The leaves of the bush they were hiding in moved gently as the beast walked by them, dangerously close. Rose saw how Sam moved his right arm behind his back slowly, very very slowly, placing his fingers on the grip of the pistole, hidden in the back of his pants...

But then the Bestafera roared up, and ran back into the woods.

Rose looked at Sam, her eyes widened, as they both waited a few more seconds just to make sure, but then they let out the biggest sigh of relief at once.

Now that the danger was a bit farer Rose realized their position, she felt his huge body being pressed to hers completely and she immediately felt her going red - thank god it was so dark; Sam couldn't see her childish reaction. She felt her heart pounding against her chest so hard and so fast that she honestly believed the man lying on her could feel it as well - silently hoping that if he really did, he'd take for the fear...

Sam pushed himself up a bit, but stopped midway and looked at the girl. "Hey..." he said softly and playfully, putting up his signature grin and Rose couldn't help but let out a small chuckle as she greeted him back with a small "Hi."

She smiled at him and unconsciously bit her lower lip - making Sam's eyes wander towards their direction. She noticed it immediately and felt the butterflies in her stomach come to live, dancing their wildest dance ever.

Sam's face changed into a more serious expression as he looked at the girl lying under him. Rose saw how his oh so beautiful, hazel eyes drifted to her lips again as he even leaned a bit closer to her, his gaze dancing between her eyes and her lips...

She already felt his sweet, warm breath tickle her face when...

" _Sam, come in!_ " they heard the voice of Sullivan rattle up through the walkie talkie, startling both of them a bit. They immediately got up, though Rose a bit slower and clumsily due to her injured leg, both being embarrassed to look at each other.

Sam got out his radio while Rose tried to get the leaves and dirt out of her curly locks, silently wondering what just happened...

"Hey, Sully." Sam answered and Sullivan immediately spoke again - "Where the hell are you?" he asked. "I can see Huxley's men everywhere. I don't know how long until they start looking around the plane but I suggest you get back here as fast as you can."

"Yeah, we know, we already had the chance to meet them...On our way Sully, keep the engine churned!"

"Be careful kiddos..." and the radio fell silent.

"Let's go." said Sam softly and he reached for Rose, putting his right arm under her back to help her walk faster.

"I'll help ya."

"Thanks." she said with a grateful smile but still felt a bit embarrassed because of what - _almost_ \- happened back in the bushes.

They stumbled silently, constantly listening around them to hear whether the beast or the mercenaries were around but they were lucky for the jungle seeming to be completely calm and silent.

They already saw the water of the Amazonas mirror back the full moon in the distant, behind the less and less trees of the jungle. The sky already started to turn slightly pink, above the distant trees of the Amazonas Bazin - the morning was finally and unstippably coming to replace the night.

They happily fastened up their steps when they heard the engine of Sully's hydroplane somewhere not so far as well. They stumbled out of the woods and were half way between the trees and the river, when the beast jumped out of nowhere, coming from the right of them...

Rose felt how Sam let go of her first, then pushed her towards the direction of the river, out of the range of the monster."Run!" he yelled after her, and reached behind his back, for the only weapon they had with themselves.

It all happened as if the time was slowed down for Rose. She saw how Sam got the pistole out and aimed it right at the face of the creature. He almost pulled the trigger, but the beast was faster and it hit him with the giant, yellowed claws. She heard Sam cry out in pain and saw his body fly back meters from the strenght of the hit.

The pistole flew spinning in the air, right towards the direction of Rose and falling to the ground almost at her feet. She immediately got it up, just when the beast turned away from the unconscious Sam - only to make Rose its next victim.

She didn't hesitate a second - didn't even aim as she shot her eyes tightly - just raised the gun in front of her face and pulled the trigger when the monster jumped. The bullet hit it mid air, right in its face. The strenght of the shot kicked back the beast and it let out a huge whine, grabbing the injured half of its face while running back into the shadows of the jungle.

"Sam!" Rose screamed as she ran to the man, lying motionlessly on the ground.

She immediately kneeled by him, not caring about the pain in her leg, and pulled the head of the man into her lap.

"Sam... come on, wake up!" she said slapping his face slightly.

But he didn't move at all...

She felt the panic making numb every single one of her limbs as she put her fingers on his neck, trying to find his pulse, but her hands were shaking so badly she couldn't feel it properly...

So she leaned closer to his lips, trying to listen whether the man was still breathing or not, now fearing the worst... Just when her ear got near his mouth, she heard a hoarse and dry "Hey..." and the breath of the man tickling her neck.

She immediately backed up to see if she heard it right or not. And she did!

Sam was looking back at her, a weak and painful smile on his pale face appeared and Rose felt such a huge joy pumping inside her chest that tears started to fill her eyes.

"Oh my god, Sam..." she said, laughing and crying at the same time. "You scared..." she paused to sniff. "...scared me..." she felt her tears ran down her face, probably dripping on Sam, who was still lying on her lap, so she reached her right arm up, to dry her face.

"Your leg!" said the man and sat up immediately - regretting it right away, as pain struck both into his bleeding shoulder and aching head.

"I'm fine!" Rose answered, and looked at the open, crimson wound on Sam's right shoulder, concern laying through her face.

"We have patch you up." she said, and stumbled upon her feet. She reached her hand out and helped him up as much as she could.

"I've got a spare t-shirt in my backpack. I'll clean your wound and wrap it up on the plane..." she said.

"Okay but we have to take a look at your knee as well..." said Sam and they both started walking down by the river, supporting each other's sore body, towards the direction where they hoped Sully and his hydroplane was waiting for them. Limping, stumbling and aching, maybe even a bit shocked, but determined, with their next stop in the head and the golden artifact in their backpack.


	10. Chapter 10: The next stop

"What the hell kiddos?!" Sullivan seemed to be in smaller state of shock as he helped Sam get into the hydroplane. "You two look horrible!"

"Thank you, Sully..." Heard Rose the weak answer of the man coming from the inside of the plane as she was stumbling upon the stairs of the flying vehicle herself as well.

Her injured knee was getting worse with each passing minute. The pain started to become unbearable and the joint became so stiff it was hard for her to even just slightly bent it. In fact, it felt like her leg didn't really want to obey her anymore.

When she got in, she saw Sam sitting in one of the backseats, Sully kneeling beside him, observing the wounds on the man's shoulder.

"You gotta tell me what the hell happened to you." He said in disbelief as he was now looking at Rose's leg.

"We will, but I think we should leave the place." She said, thinking about not just the beast but Huxley's man also wondering around in the jungle, who knows how close to them.

"Yeah, you are right. Can you handle him?" He asked as he sat into the driver's seat, pointing at Sam over his shoulder.

"Yes, I'm in a much better condition than him, don't worry." Answered Rose but she could barely keep herself together. She felt extremely tired and weak and the pain was sucking away her last pieces of strength but she had to take care of Sam's wounds as soon as possible.

She stumbled next to the man, pressing her teeth together trying not to look too weak again and took off her backpack as she sat in the seat next to his. She looked for the spare t-shirt she packed the day before to somehow make a bandage out of it and a bottle of water to clean the wound and her hands with.

"Hey, milady." Said Sam, a weak smile laying across his face as he watched the girl sitting next to him.

"Hey." She answered and couldn't help but smile softly in return. Her eyes wandered towards the wound under the ripped clothes on his shoulder. It looked horrible and definitely needed proper treatment once they landed - some water and a t-shirt won't do much - it was too deep and long and seemed sore already.

She tore the fabric of her t-shirt in a way so that she could use it as a bandage and when she was done, she leaned towards the man. Pieces of his ripped shirt was stuck in the wound and Rose couldn't clean the gash properly either so she sighed and said: "We gotta take off your shirt." She already felt her cheeks burning up slightly but she tried not to think about it too much as her hands reached for the bottom of the shirt.

"Can you raise your arms a bit?" She asked and Sam did as the girl said. He sat up straighter and rose his arms up as much as he could - this way Rose could carefully pull the shirt off of the man's torso in no time.

Even though he tried not to, he still huffed in pain and his face distorted into a painful grin as he leaned back against his seat.

"How's your leg?" He asked between two breaths.

"I'm fine..." lied Rose and opened up the small bottle of water to clean her hands before starting with Sam's shoulder. She didn't want her dirty hands to cause a nasty infection on top of it all. While washing her hands as much as she could, her eyes wandered towards his chest that had both sweat glistening and hair all over - and another tattoo. A star right under his left collarbone. She wondered what the meaning behind this one could be?

She immediately felt her cheeks turning into a deeper shade of crimson but couldn't help herself - her gaze travelled a little bit further down, towards his stomach, where she could see the scars of the three bullets that once penetrated his body, and also a happy trail of hair leading down towards his...

"You like what you see, dear?" Sam asked and, on his face, there was his signature grin again - though this time it was weaker than usual.

"Don't call me that." she answered without looking into the man's face, she was sure he could see how red her cheeks were but still attempted to hide them. "And just so you know, I wasn't staring." she added while wetting a piece of fabric. "I was just looking at your wounds..."

"Now come here." she said and stood up - despite all her efforts not to, she still let out a small moan when she put her weight on her injured leg - and sat on the armrest of Sam's chair. She cleaned the margin of the wound first. She had to muster her courage before getting to the deeper parts and needed to take deep breaths to help her stomach back to its original place. When she was done, she reached for the bottle again and this time poured the water straight into the gash.

Sam's body twitched in pain as the cold water washed the jungle's dirt out of the open sore and Rose could see the blood leaving his face. When she felt sort of that the wound was clean enough, she got the remaining of her t-shirt and carefully wrapped it around the man's shoulder. She tried to make it tight enough to keep the gash closed but not too tight to stop the circulation of the blood.

"All right. This'll do." for a while - she thought but didn't say that part out loud. Something didn't feel right about that wound - it was deep but seemed to be worsening faster than normally and this worried her quite much.

"Thank you, Rose. " said Sam and looked into her eyes. She looked back at the man and the way he said her name made her mind wander back to the bush, deep inside the jungle for a second, but then she stood up. He needed to sleep, so that he could heal a little.

"Get some rest. I'll speak with Sully." she stepped away but then she felt a warm hand grabbing her right arm and softly pulling her back.

"Stay..." Rose stopped and glanced back at him. The butterflies, the damn butterflies came to in her stomach again, but this time they were so fast and wild, they felt more like birds in there. She looked into his eyes and wanted to insist but by the time she realized, she was sitting in her seat again, her intact leg pulled up, close to her body, Sam's hand still clenched onto her arm. She looked at him again, but he was now fast asleep and Rose felt like she couldn't fight her own eyelids any longer either.

She took a deep breath and by the time the warm air escaped through her lips, she drifted into a dreamless sleep.

xxx

Rose wasn't sure how long she slept and really hoped it wasn't precious long hours she wasted when, she woke up to the hydroplane softly vibrating around her. After everything, it is more than sure that Huxley is always just half a step behind, not letting them taking a break at all.

To her left, there was a small window through which she saw the thinning trees of the jungle under them, being replaced with more sand and less green, somewhere in the distance, there laying a smaller mountain range - the Roncador Mountains. Sam must have told Sully where to fly when they were getting into the plane.

Rose looked at the seat beside her where the man was still asleep. Little drops of sweat were glistening on his forehead - he must be having a fever - she thought and this worried her quite much. What if the sore gets even worse? What if they need a hospital? Maybe they should turn back and get Sam help instead of going even further... Maybe that would be the right thing to do...

She carefully stumbled upon her feet and made her way towards the passenger's seat next to Sullivan.

"Hey, kiddo." He greeted her right away. "How's the leg?" He asked and gestured his head towards the injured limb.

"The pain is not that strong anymore but it constantly feels numb. To be honest, I can't decide if it is getting worse or better..." she answered looking at her own, awkwardly held right leg.

"I'll take a look at it once we are on land." Said Sullivan with an encouraging smile on his face.

"Are you some kind of a doctor as well?" Asked Rose but her question made the man burst out in laughter.

"Me, a doctor." He laughed. "I guess it would have been useful, but nah. With Sam's brother, Nathan by your side you see everything on the way though. I know how to patch and fix a few things up, that's all."

"I've heard some stories about your adventures with Nathan." Rose admitted.

"Speaking of stories, don't you wanna finally tell me what the hell happened to you back in the jungle?" Sullivan asked finally and Rose did so as the man asked - she told everything to him starting with the big rotating rock well hidden under the leaves, the underground tunnel and hall, the carvings on everything, the beast that attacked them and ended a lot of Huxley's men and how it almost ended Rose and Sam too on the riverside and how they'd manage to overcome it in the end. And also, the small artefact they'd found and was now laying deep inside Rose's backpack...

"Thank you for saving his ass out there." Said Sullivan after finally digesting everything Rose had told him about.

"He saved me more than once, really." Rose answered as she remembered all the countless occasions Sam did really save her life already.

"Yeah, I know that he is a capable man, and that he knows what he's doing. But Nathan's got all the luck in the family I'm afraid." He said with a bittersweet smile on his face. "For Sam, there has been too many close calls already... It's good that he's finally found someone who can back him up."

The sun outside the hydroplane was still up high when Sullivan started to direct the flying vehicle towards the ground. Due to the area being rather like a flat savannah with bushes and some trees here and there, they didn't have to park the plane too far from the mountain for which Rose was extremely grateful.

She honestly had no idea how'd she be climbing a mountain with her leg, let alone walking long hours before it. It was still sort of impossible without the walking part anyway. She could only hold it in a strange position now and even the shape of her knee seemed strangely off - though she hoped she was just hallucinating the last part because of the exhaustion and pain.

"I'll go and wake Sam up." said Rose when they landed but before she could even stand up, she heard the man's voice behind her.

"No need. I'm awake." his voice was hoarse and dry but he looked a tiny bit better than before - though he still seemed a little bit paler than normal. He was still sitting in his seat, trying out his injured shoulder - though he didn't give voice to it, Rose could see his face flinch in pain with every move he made.

"Good morning, princess!" teased him Sullivan, placing a cigar into his mouth just to light it up right away. "Now we just need to have a look at Rose's leg and you are both good to go."

So now, a few minutes later, Rose was sitting on the last step of the hydroplane's short stairs and looked at her own, really distorted looking knee in a bit of a shock. She had been sure it was just a bruise up until they slowly rolled her jeans above the body part and they could all see clearly something wasn't as it should have been.

"That's a dislocated knee right there, kiddo." stated Sullivan the facts while stepping on the butt of his cigar. "You are lucky it is not broken - and that I have already fixed countless dislocated body parts in my life." he said as he stepped closer and kneeled beside Rose. He grabbed her leg but before doing anything he gestured his head towards Sam who'd been leaning against the side of the plane.

"Would you mind?"

"Of course." said Sam and stepped by the girl himself as well.

"Would you mind what?" Asked Rose, shifting her focus from one man to another. This silent conversation between the two scared her.

"Hang on tight." he heard Sam's voice coming right next from her left ear and felt his huge arms locking onto her upper body in way so that she couldn't jump up or move too much.

"I'll tryna make it quick..." said Sullivan and without any warning he placed one of his hands on her ankle, firmly pulling it towards himself, while massaging the popped kneecap with his other slowly back into its original place.

It wasn't longer than a couple of seconds, really, but it hurt so damn much and was so sudden that Sullivan was lucky Sam held Rose with all his might.

"What the..." she yelled and tears immediately filled her eyes but by the time she could finish her sentence, the pain was gone.

"It's as good as new." said Sully proudly, slapping his hands together as he observed his "work". Rose could also feel Sam's arms letting go of her (though she wouldn't have minded him keeping hold of her for the rest of the times).

At first, she just tried to bent it slightly and very, very carefully - and it worked! Of course, it still hurt but it wasn't something she couldn't have handled. She was now standing up, and even though it hurt, felt weaker and stiffer than usual, she could finally walk without the agony.

"It is really as good as new!" She said, happily walking in a small circle. She was limping sightly but she was sure, with time that would go away as well. "Thank you, Sully!"

"It's nothing." He smiled in return.

By the time she rolled her jeans back down, Sam was already standing next to her, reaching her backpack towards Rose.

"We are all set then." He said as the girl took the bag from him.

"We are." She nodded in agreement as she looked at the mountain in front of them. It wasn't the biggest mountain in the world, but standing in the warm and humid air right at its foot, it seemed way too huge.

"Okay guys. This time, please take better care of yourselves..." said Sullivan as he reached a walkie talkie towards Sam.

"I can't promise anything." Answered the man with a cheeky smile on his handsome face, tugging the radio in the back pocket of his jeans.

"Then just keep in contact at least!" He was joking but both Rose and Sam felt a little scolded as they started their way towards the Roncador Mountain, only knowing they were looking for an entrance of the cave, racing a whole army lead by a crazy man. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading this far! Feel free to write down you opinions I am always very happy to read them! :) ♥


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